Playfulness in design and in the process

In the past week I've come across 3 articles on designing for delight as well as usability. Evidence of this, according to Fred Beecher, is in the undeniable success of the iPhone despite its many usability flaws, which he describes in detail (good tips on what not to do). I love this line:

While it’s still my responsibility to prevent things from sucking, now it’s also my responsibility to add a little playfulness.

Chris Fahey aims to put "three delightful details" in his designs:

...a humorous error message, a helpful hint at a difficult juncture, a way to skip a step in a process, etc.

And Dana Chisnell describes the 3 levels of happiness in a design: Mindfulness, Flow and Meaning.

Absolutely we should strive to delight in our designs. We should also have this goal for the design process. This is easily accomplished by making the design process visible and involving everyone in it - whiteboard sketches and walking through paper wireframes or prototypes. Especially when it includes markers. Seriously, who doesn't like to play with markers?

It also helps to introduce humor when there is a conflict over how to address a specific function. Suggesting something crazy like having a little head pop-up, usually of some colorful executive, a la "Clippy" style.

I've found when everyone can share in the designs and share in some laughs, it is much easier to arrive at a shared vision.